Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

I'll take a brief shot at all of them off the top of my head, and 
other people can add more detail or correct me. My answers follow 
your questions:

> 1. How far do you push the drums onto the metal posts. I have 
about 1 
> inch showing becuase it was so hard to push the drums onto the 
> mounting post. Should I push harder?

The drums can stick because the posts are bevilled (if that's the 
term). Turn the drum gently on the post until you can push it all 
the way down. If you can't get it to move, coat the post with a 
little WD40. Height is adjustable, but if you don't go all the way 
down, one day the drum might fall unexpectedly and wake you up from 
your blissed-out stupor.
 
> 2. The dual zone cymbal has a sensitivity screw on the bottom. I 
used 
> a perfect sized screwdrive but I still had to push kinda hard to 
get 
> it to turn. Has anyone here messed with it? How hard to you have 
to 
> push to break it??? The said to be carful in the manual but I 
didnt 
> read that before hand. And what actually does it do? I was having 
> problems with the crash overpowering the rest of the kit. Should I 
> have just turned down the volume of the cymbal instead of the 
screw? 
> I take it the screw is for velocity sensitivity right?

The screw is simply a manual adjustment for sensitivity that really 
isn't all that important; yamaha has to justify the increased cost 
of the stepped up model somehow, doesn't it? If I recall, the screw 
doesn't have much play. The safest bet is to position it halfway and 
do all your volume adjustments in the voice and trigger menus. In no 
time, you'll forget that it's even there. 

> 3. I am having the same problem others are having with the hi-hat, 
> making the snare drum louder or softer or just not triggering at 
all. Is there an easy link to the fix? I can search thru these posts 
if thats the easiest way. 

I'm not quite sure what the problem is. If earlier posts deal with 
it, maybe someone will know how to respond. We could be getting into 
the areas of crosstalk (rejection in yamaha parlance), gain, and 
minimum velocity--all on the trigger menu. Whatever is going on, I'm 
sure that with a little more fine tuning in the question, as well as 
in the module, you'll lick it.
 
> 4. Can I make my Hi-Hat louder? I can barely hear it! I went into 
the settings and found that the hi-hat volume was set at 127 the 
higest you could go (maybe I was in the wrong spot). Am I going to 
have to  turn down the rest of my system to make the hi-hat louder? 
Or is this a result of that known problem?

Again, I'm not familiar with the known problem. Is this happening on 
all the preset kits and any user kits that you've programmed? Make 
sure. Are you listening through headphones or an amp? The hh pad is 
plugged into trigger 8. Check the volume in the voice menu and the 
gain setting in the trigger menu. Try increasing the numbers to see 
if that helps. You won't have to turn down the rest of the inputs to 
balance them with the hh. There is a fix for this. More information 
is necessary, though.
> 
> 5. How can I adjust the volume of the toms and the cymbals?

The toms are earmarked for inputs 3, 4, and 5, and the cymbals for 6 
and 7. Adjust the individual volume parameters in the corresponding 
voice and trigger sections. You should also know that the utility 
menu has a "live" setting under UT SYSTEM that allows you to use the 
accomp volume and click volume knobs to adjust the volume of pads 
even further. Check it out in the manual.
 
> 6. What sensitivity setting do you all use? CUSTOM? Becuase Meduim 
> seems to work best for me so far. With dynamic setting it picks up 
> almost no ghost notes, and I have to hit the drums too hard to get 
> maximum trigger. With easy, I have the ghost notes and sensitivity 
> but everything sounds the same. Cant I have the sensitivity of 
Easy 
> with the expression of medium? My friends practice pad is a piece 
of 
> crap, and you can paradiddle/ghost note all day on it. Either 
these 
> pads are really cheap, or I dont have them set up right. Im not 
> looking for perfection or anything either. 

I'd stay with medium for the time being. When you've worked with the 
trigger menu for a while, especially the gain and min. vel. 
parameters, you should start to notice what you have to do to get 
what you want. The DTXPU will pick up ghosts and buzzes, but there's 
no way to eliminate entirely the learning curve. Get the feel of how 
pads and module interact, and then you can adjust to personal 
playing style and taste. It's going to get more complicated before 
it gets easier. Somewhere along the way, the pads are going to start 
reacting to hits on each other, making your adjustments even finer. 
Also, remember that these are gum rubber pads; set up correctly, 
they will perform. But they are not acoustic drums. They have their 
own characteristics and foibles. You won't reach their limitations 
for a while, if ever. Some veteran electronic drummers still swear 
by them.

> 7. How do I adjust Hi-hat foot pedal so I dont have to push 
> unnessasarily hard, to get it to full closed position?

That you do by setting the hi hat offset, found in the Utilities 
menu. The lower the number, the easier the hats are to close.
> 
> Whew! Please number your answers so I know what questions you are 
> answering. And THANK YOU VERY MUCH!